Organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays have gained significant interest recently in display applications in view of their faster response times, larger viewing angles, higher contrast, lighter weight, lower power, amenability to flexible substrates, as compared to liquid crystal displays (LCDs).
Currently, active matrix organic light emitting device (“AMOLED”) displays are being introduced. The advantages of such displays include lower power consumption, manufacturing flexibility and faster refresh rate over conventional liquid crystal displays. In contrast to conventional liquid crystal displays, there is no backlighting in an AMOLED display as each pixel consists of different colored OLEDs emitting light independently. The OLEDs emit light based on current supplied through a drive transistor.
An AMOLED display includes an array of rows and columns of pixels, each having an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and backplane electronics arranged in the array of rows and columns. Since the OLED is a current driven device, the pixel circuit of the AMOLED should be capable of providing an accurate and constant drive current. Active matrix addressing involves a layer of backplane electronics, based on thin film transistors (TFTs) fabricated using amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si), or polymer technologies, to provide the bias voltage and drive current needed in each OLED based pixel.
AMOLED displays can experience non-uniformity, for example due to manufacturing processes and differential ageing. Individual pixels of an AMOLED display may age differently from other pixels due to the images displayed on the display over time. Ageing of both the TFT backplane and the OLEDs for a particular pixel can separately contribute to the ageing of that pixel. Additionally, different color OLEDs are made from different organic materials, which age differently. Thus, the separate OLEDs for a pixel may age differently from one another. As a result, the same drive current may produce a different brightness for a particular pixel over time, or a pixel's color may shift over time. Measuring the status (e.g., ageing, non-uniformity, etc.) of an AMOLED display can require that each individual pixel be measured. This requires a great many measurements, and a number of measurements that increases as the number of pixels increases.